Stalin and science

Much as I agree with Gennady Gorelik's analysis in his review of Stalin's Great Science (November 2005 pp42?43), I believe that there is much more concerning science in the Soviet Union that he could have mentioned. It is obvious, for example, that Stalin protected some Soviet physicists because he knew that the country's military power owed much to their work. Indeed, Stalin once protected future peace campaigner Andrei Sakharov from disciplinary measures taken against him by his own chief of police, Lavrenty Beria. In another instance, the Communist Party prepared a plan to ?purge? Soviet physics, just as biology had been, but suddenly dropped it ? probably because Stalin feared that it might be harmful to the development of nuclear arms.